History in the making

I like listening to audiobooks. I have a decent commute, and if I am walking Loki by myself, it is nice to have something to keep my mind occupied. I have listened to a variety of books- classics, historical fiction, biography, chick-lit, humour.

I find that the most successful books are humour- Amy Poehler and Tina Fey knocked it out of the park, for sure. They are hilarious, and their delivery only adds to the funny. The Diana Gabaldon books are pretty well-read, also. I listened to A Discovery of Witches- it was fantastic, and I only abandoned the series because I felt like the second fell off, not because of the audiobook. I have listened to numerous classics through Librovox. They can be hit-and-miss being read by volunteers, but overall they are decent quality and it can help bring some more difficult books to life. Liza Picard’s London series was absolutely fascinating, and entertaining. I wasn’t sure about them, they are encyclopaedic style books, you can’t see the sources, they cover a wide range of topics, but it just works. On the flipside, I just finished Allison Weir’s Elizabeth of York and it fell flat. The narrator gave certain characters accents which were just distracting, she padded the book with quotes which was even more obvious with the accents, and the repetitive “equivalent to THIS MANY pounds in today’s money” after every sum was just obnoxious. If you don’t like an author in a physical book, the audiobook will NOT make it better.

I am currently listening to Ben Aaronivich’s Rivers of London. I’m not huge into fantasy books, but one of my colleagues recommended it, and it has definitely caught my interest. I think it is reconfirming my thought that on the whole, fiction fares a little bit better in the audiobook world.

Do you like audiobooks? Do you have any favourites? Any that should be avoided?